The Northern Regional Chairman of Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr. Yakubu Majeed, has admonished Journalists and Media Practitioners to embrace Evidence Based Reporting in the line of their professional duties. Accordingly, he has also urged practitioners to take data seriously and research to propel their reportage.
The GJA Chairman made the admonishment at a three-day training workshop organized for Media Practitioners on Population issues in Tamale.
He noted evidence-based reporting will help give credibility to the work of journalists, hence, “we should begin to take data and research seriously because they are necessarily in executing our duties.”
Mr. Yakubu Majeed in his presentation pointed out that, since the inception of the 1992 constitution, there has been a proliferation of media in the country with the North, not being an exception.
He disclosed that there are about thirty (30) Radio stations and five Television stations in the Tamale metropolis alone.
He however lamented some of these media organizations have not lived up to expectations and also fail to adhere to the GJA code of ethics.
“In fact, some of the stations have thrown the ethics of the profession to the dogs, they use their medium to do what pleases them without due regards to the code of ethics and standards of journalism.”
Notwithstanding this, the GJA Chairman indicated some other media houses are doing marvelously well and stick to the ethics of the Journalism profession.
“Sincerely management and staff in these media are living up to their responsibilities” he emphasized.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) organized the capacity building to sharpen the skills and knowledge of media practitioners on population issues.
The selected participants from the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Bono East Regions were educated on population communication, population dynamics, the National Population Policy and its implications on Ghana’s population growth.
